Antitrust Radar
Federal merger observatory

Federal HSR comparative desk

Merger Review Comparison Studio

Compare federal merger-review years using published notification counts and adjusted denominators. Policy changes and reporting gaps affect comparisons; review activity does not establish competitive harm.

Published transaction horizon3 fiscal years selected
Reported HSR transactions from fiscal years 2016 through 2025The line joins ten published annual values. Enlarged colored points mark the fiscal years selected for comparison.1,832162,052172,1111819202122232425Federal fiscal year
All released annual values Comparison setNotifications, not all mergers
Published years
10
FY2016-FY2025
Selected
3
of 4 maximum
Monthly records
36
12 per selected year
Evidence sources
1
FTC and DOJ annual report
Synthetic scores
0
exact measures remain separate

Federal review comparison

3 fiscal years on one reporting contract

36 exact monthly cells / reviewed Aug 13, 2026
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Comparison set

Fiscal-year selection

3 / 4
01
FY20161,832 reported transactions
02
FY20172,052 reported transactions
03
FY20182,111 reported transactions
Available fiscal years
01 / Reporting unitFederal fiscal-year HSR program activityOctober through September; one annual source release
02 / Exact alignmentSame published fields and monthly calendarCounts and rates retain their own denominators
03 / Interpretation boundaryNo agency score or competitive-harm inferenceEarly termination remains policy-sensitive

Source-separated review pipeline

Counts, denominators, and rates stay distinct

8 exact measures / FY
FY2016
1,832reported transactions
Adjusted base
1,772
Second Requests
54 / 3.0%
ET grants
1,102 / 80.2%
FY2017
2,052reported transactions
Adjusted base
1,992
Second Requests
51 / 2.6%
ET grants
1,220 / 78.6%
FY2018
2,111reported transactions
Adjusted base
2,028
Second Requests
45 / 2.2%
ET grants
1,170 / 78.0%
Published measureFY2016FY2017FY2018
Reported transactionsNotification-stage count
1,832
2,052
2,111
Filings receivedFilings are not transactions
3,674
4,083
4,188
Adjusted review universeSecond Request denominator
1,772
1,992
2,028
Second RequestsAdministrative investigation count
54
51
45
Second Request rateAdjusted transactions
3.0%
2.6%
2.2%
Early termination requestsPolicy-sensitive request count
1,374
1,552
1,500
Early termination grantsPolicy-sensitive grant count
1,102
1,220
1,170
Early termination grant rateEarly termination requests
80.2%
78.6%
78.0%

Evidence coverage ledger

Missing history remains visible

0 imputed values
01
Annual HSR activityOne complete published pipeline row per fiscal year
3 / 3complete
02
Monthly filing cadenceTwelve reported fiscal months for every selected year
3 / 3complete
03
Transaction-size distributionTransaction-size bands are encoded only for FY2025
0 / 3partial
Interpretation boundary

HSR transactions are notifications reported under the federal premerger program, not a census of every U.S. merger. A reported transaction can involve multiple filings, and the adjusted denominator removes matters for which the agencies could not issue a Second Request. Second Requests and public enforcement actions are different stages with different timing rules. Their counts must not be treated as a finding that every reviewed or reported transaction was anticompetitive. Early termination statistics reflect requests and agency action under the rules operating in each fiscal year. Policy and publication changes make this series unsuitable as a standalone measure of enforcement intensity. Fiscal-year differences are descriptive changes in published HSR program activity. They are not merger-rate estimates, agency-performance scores, findings of competitive harm, or causal effects of policy changes.